The Death of Ivan Ilyich, Master and Man, Eleven Short Stories, The Snowstorm, Three Deaths
by Leo Tolstoy

Discussion questions

1.  Many of these works — including The Death of Ivan Ilyich, “Master and Man,” “The Snowstorm,” “Three Deaths” and “How Much Land Does a Man Need?” — are about dying well or badly. How does Tolstoy think death should be faced? What is Tolstoy’s attitude to death in stories including “The Snowstorm,” “Three Deaths,” and “How Much How does his attitude change among his various works? What makes dying difficult?

2.  E.M. Forster believed that birth and death present the novelist with insuperable difficulties, and said, “We only know of them by report. Our final experience, like our first, is conjectural. Certain people pretend to tell us what birth and death are like … but it is all from the outside.” Is Tolstoy’s presentation of the experience of death “all from the outside”? Is it convincing?

3.  Other writers have described dying from the inside: Giuseppe di Lampeduse in The Leopard, William Golding in Pincher Martin, Ian McEwan in Atonement, and Emily Dickinson in several poems. Is Tolstoy’s description of the subjective experience of death convincing? What is he trying to say about death?

4.  Tolstoy’s stories could be called affective literature — they want to persuade the reader into a particular attitude to both life and death. Is his design is too palpable? Is he persuasive in his viewpoint?

5.  Tolstoy believed there was a radical difference between attitudes to death in the well-to-do bourgeoisie and the impoverished peasantry. What were they? Do his views still hold good for the different social classes today? Compare the two people who die in “Three Deaths”: the rich Lady Shirkinskaya and the peasant Uncle Khveder. How do each of them deal with their impending deaths and what is their attitude to those around them? How do their friends and family treat them? What impact do the three deaths in the story (the third is the tree chopped down in order to make a cross for Khveder’s grave site) impact the reader?

6.  Tolstoy was an idiosyncratic and independent freethinker who derided respected institutions including the church, the law, the medical profession, and the theater. Where do you find mockery of such bodies in these stories? Why did Tolstoy attack them? Is his satire ever funny?

7.  Tolstoy’s style is renowned for its direct, simple truthfulness. Is this reputation justified? Is there an art in his artlessness? How does the simple style of his work affect its impact on readers? Does it suit the stories?

8.  Some critics have said there is no writer who has understood people as well as Tolstoy, who seems to be intimate with everybody and everything — not only people but animals and even objects. What examples of his insight in these stories stand out? How would you appraise his psychological insight and sympathy with his characters?

9.  What is Tolstoy’s opinion of the serfs and lower classes? Does he think they are inherently better or worse than those of superior social rank? Is his view accurate? What value does Tolstoy place on physical labor versus intellectual work?

10.  By what moral philosophies do the characters in the short stories live? How do these philosophies contribute to (or hinder) their happiness and well-being?

11.  What do the bitter cold and snow in “Master and Man” and “The Snowstorm” symbolize? What other symbols are apparent in these stories? What is the meaning of the fact that the travelers in both stories have lost the road and travel in circles?

12.  While lost in “The Snowstorm” the narrator recalls Fyodor Filippych, the butler on his estate while growing up, and the failure to rescue a peasant drowning in the lake. Why do his thoughts turn to this episode and what does it mean in the context of his current situation?

13.  Scholars have noted much Christian symbolism in “Master and Man”: the number three features 15 times; the gatekeeper of the house in Grishkino is called Petrukha (Peter); on the road they pass Semka (Simon); there are 13 people seated around the table at what turns out to be Brekhunov’s last supper. Do you see the story as a Christian allegory? If so, what is the meaning? Are there elements of other faiths present?

14.  What do the characters in The Death of Ivan Ilyich represent: Ivan, his wife, his daughter, his friends, and Gerasim? What do Nikita and Brekhunov represent in “Master and Man?” Are they stereotypes or are there any aspects of their characters that add complexity to their personalities?

15.  Throughout these works, Tolstoy makes the difference between he might have called an “artificial life” and an “authentic life” clear. What behavior and motivations belong to each type of “life”? Are the differences between them always so distinct? Which characters, if any, attempt to live a more authentic life during the course of the narrative, and do they succeed?

About the author

Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy, commonly known as Leo Tolstoy, was born on September 9, 1828, at his family’s estate, Yasnaya Polyana, in the Tula province of Russia, the youngest of four boys. In 1830, when his mother, Princess Volkonskaya, died, his father’s cousin took over caring for the children. When their father, Count Nikolay Tolstoy, died seven years later, an aunt was appointed their legal guardian, upon her death the children moved in with another aunt in Kazan, Russia. Tolstoy received his primary education at home from French and German tutors. In 1843 enrolled in an Oriental languages program at the University of Kazan but his low grades forced him to transfer to an easier law program. Prone to partying in excess, he left the university in 1847 without a degree and returned to his familial estate. His brother Nikolay convinced him to join the army in the Caucasus Mountains, where Nikolay was stationed. Following his stint there, Tolstoy transferred to Sevastopol in Ukraine in November 1854, where he fought in the Crimean War through August 1855. While in the army Tolstoy worked on his autobiographical trilogy — Childhood, Boyhood, and Youth — as well as The Cossacks and Sevastopol Sketches, which both deal with his army experiences.

After the war Tolstoy left the army and found himself in high demand in the St. Petersburg literary scene. Declaring himself an anarchist, he went to Paris in 1857, gambled away his money, and was forced to return to Russia. In 1862 he married Sofya Andreyevna Behrs, a court physician’s daughter. The couple had 13 children, but only 10 had survived past infancy. Residing at Yasnaya Polyana with his family, Tolstoy completed his novel War and Peace in 1869. That book, along with Anna Karenina (published in installments from 1873 to 1877), brought him critical and public acclaim and wealth. After completing Anna Karenina Tolstoy suffered a spiritual crisis, turning first to the Russian Orthodox Church, but he ultimately came to believe that Christian churches were corrupt and developed his own beliefs, which he expressed in many philosophical works. Due to his unconventional spiritual beliefs, Tolstoy was ousted by the Russian Orthodox Church and watched by the secret police. His new beliefs also prompted his desire to give away his money, causing friction between him and his wife. His later fictional works were primarily moral tales, including The Death of Ivan Ilyich, Father Sergius, and Resurrection.

In November 1910, while traveling with his daughter Aleksandra, Tolstoy became ill and stopped at the house of the stationmaster of a train depot in Astapovo, where he died on November 20.